By July 1855 he had moved to Elliston’s premises at 78 Liverpool Street, formerly occupied by the photographers Duryea and McDonald where he built a “Crystal Palace” studio and purchased photographic equipment from Ross of London. Financial difficulties ensued, and Bock moved several times.

In 1857 Alfred Bock was at 18 Macquarie Street. But on 6th February, 1858, he was insolvent. Later that year, Bock re-established himself at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town – a business he called The City Photographic Establishment – and stayed there until 1865 when he was again declared insolvent. By this time Thomas Nevin had been working with Bock as his apprentice since July 1863.

How many of these items did Thomas Nevin acquire – apart from the dwelling at 138 Elizabeth St and the studio at 140 Elizabeth St, leased from Abraham Biggs (Victoria), and the business name – when he took over The City Photographic Establishment from Bock in 1865?

One item at least is easy to trace. Alfred Bock’s design for his own studio stamp was used by Thomas Nevin for commercial studio portraits with some minor alterations and additions into the mid-1870s:

Thomas Nevin probably acquired Bock’s photographic equipment, “instruments” and chemicals along with the transfer of the lease. Some of the portraits listed at the auction may be those now held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery of Sarah and Thomas Crouch. Some of the larger items, such as the carpet, the table with griffin-shaped legs, the low chair covered with a shiny material, the curtain, and the painted backdrop of river valley and mountain, can be seen in Nevin’s carte-de-visite of an unidentified woman in hat, with handbag and umbrella, which bears the studio name on verso (Marcel Safier Collection). These items too might have been included in the sale of Bock’s stock-in-trade.

The same backdrop can be seen on the (viewer’s) right in a full length studio portrait of Bishop Willson, dated at ca. 1865 and attributed to Charles A. Woolley by the TMAG. It is visible also in an unattributed photograph of Hugh Munro Hull, coroner and Clerk of the House, Tasmanian Parliament.

Charles A. Woolley attributed, Bishop Willson TMAG Collection

Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin resided on the premises at 138 Elizabeth St next door to the studio from their marriage in July 1871. Their first two children were born there: May Florence in 1872, and Thomas James in 1874.

In January 1876 the Nevins took up residence at the Hobart Town Hall, the location of the Municipal Police Office and Public Library where Nevin had been appointed Office and Hall Keeper. His photographic activities now centred on the provision of criminal identification photographs for the Municipal Police Office. He maintained his other studio at New Town, and the studio at 140 Elizabeth St was retained by a Mr Edward Slide (Hobart Town Gazette). The lease notice appeared in The Mercury on January 8th, 1876:

Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

Professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland.

John Nevin snr (1808-1887)

Soldier, journalist, teacher and poet John Nevin snr (1808-1887). in the Royal Scots 1825-1841

Disclaimer

We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A.H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

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